The L.A. Times has a piece today about The Eugene Bell Foundation’s plan to push for family reunions between elderly Korean-Americans and their relatives in the North. There are several obvious questions about this, beginning with the fact that North Korea hasn’t said anything about whether it will allow the reunions to take place, or whether it will permit them without a dictator’s ransom. As with previous reunions, expect alert North Korean minders to be present to make sure everyone...

Welcome to the 20th Century, Korea! The government said Friday that mixed-race young men in the country are entitled to join the military under a revision of the military conscription law passed by the National Assembly last June. The move drew attention as it came amid the skyrocketing popularity of Super Bowel MVP Hines Ward, a Korean-American athlete. The “half-Korean” football player’s success story, however, sparked introspection in South Korea about discrimination against people having mixed-race backgrounds. Well, instrospection is...

This came in last night from our Aussie friend, Brendan Brown: BOY!! Patrick Kim Brown was born healthy and happy and a heavy 3.88kg at 8.07 yesterday morning Feb.9. . . . We’re both estatic and look forward very much to bringing him home tomorrow. Brendan and his wife already have a daughter.

No, not really. It’s just the latest from socialist wingnut and former Dennis Kucinich groupie Christine Ahn. Remember her? The International Herald Tribune’s bio failed to note Ms. Ahn’s associations with the anti-American, pro-Pyongyang Korea Solidarity Committee. SAN FRANCISCO The Bush administration is drawing up plans to further tighten the noose around North Korea by barring financial firms investing in Pyongyang from conducting business in the United States. Washington is moving fast to capitalize on Pyongyang’s alleged counterfeit dealings, but...

Corporal Brett Lundstrom, United States Marine Corps, came from Kyle, South Dakota, a place I’ve driven through more times than I could count, and died fighting in Iraq. It was this picture of his casket riding through that familiar countryside, with its raw, bleak beauty, that got me. See the rest of the photographs here, at the Rocky Mountain News. May the wakan tanka protect his soul and comfort his family. Palama-ye-lo and semper fi, Corporal Lundstrom. We won’t forget...

Interesting perspective here, from James Brooke. The points that struck me most: We still don’t have an FTA with Japan. Is an FTA with Korea designed to force Japan’s hand? The “Japanese street” has no sense of insecure competitiveness with Korea, but Japanese corporations probably do feel a sense of competitiveness. They have their eyes on market share. Roh Moo Hyun believes he can use an FTA to prove that his America-bashing and neutralism haven’t alienated the United States after...

The partially defector-run Daily NK takes note of the reported border attacks and interviews the person I was most interested in hearing from: Lim Chun-Young, the former NK Special Forces soldier of whose words I was reminded by Tuesday’s Donga Ilbo report. It also has this great graphic, but nothing to confirm that any attacks actually took place. The Daily NK, which has contacts and reporters in that area, found no one who could verify the attacks, or that any...

While I enjoy the irony of the unions becoming a plague for the best candidate they could ever hope to put in office, I’m obliged to say that Roh is actually doing the right thing here.

The Joongang Ilbo reports: A U.S. official said yesterday that Washington would not consider goods manufactured at an industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong as South Korean products in its free-trade negotiations with Seoul. “In our view, the agreement applies to goods produced only in South Korea and the United States,” a senior economic official at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said at a background press briefing. Asked if that position was negotiable, he said, “We...

The WFP is still trying to negotiate a compromise aid program, six weeks after the regime shut down food aid distribution. I’m not going to give this much discussion, however, because I have little confidence that the U.N. will be as rigorous about its minimum requirements as the North Koreans will be. Having no respect for human life is a strong negotiating advantage.

A recent study has shown that the US has been gaining favor in the hearts of Korean university students over the last 3 years; while feelings about China have chilled somewhat. The study was done by a Japanese group, although I’m not sure just how that fact alters the context (motive to depress the anti-Korean backlash in Japan?). The study was done at five universities and surveyed just under 900 students. Only one, Yonsei, appears to have been a major...

He’d get three if we weren’t talking about the most fundamental expectations of international law: In unusually direct language, South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Lee Tae-shik on Tuesday called North Korea’s counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and other illegal activities “unacceptable” and said he had made this clear to Pyongyang. Speaking at the invitation of the Korean Economic Institute, Lee said the North “must completely wash its hands of the illegal activities. The envoy made the remarks when asked about...

Yoduk Story’s web site is still down. [Update: Brendan Brown reports no problems accessing the site from Korea, but I’m still not getting in from the U.S. Odd.] Meanwhile, pro-North Korean professor Kang Jeong-Koo (Remember him? He called the North Korean invasion of June 1950 a “War for Reunification” and General MacArthur a “war criminal”) has been suspended from giving lectures, not for reasons related to academic standards–the man teaches things that are demonstrably false–but because his views embarrassed the...

Yes, Muslims follows the Old Testament. Now, check this out–the most inflammatory of the “cartoons” was fabricated from a photograph of a French pig-calling contest, by a Muslim imam. It would be funnier if people weren’t dying over it. Those who brought forward the lie are a body among yourselves: think it not to be an evil to you; On the contrary it is good for you: to every man among them (will come the punishment) of the sin that...

Found here.

Things will get much worse with North Korea within the next 30 days. How do I know? Because things will be much worse with Iran within the next 30 days. These things always seem to work in tandem.

[Post moved up] OFK, Jan. 20, ’05: “Down with Kim Jong-il! Let’s all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime!” OFK, Dec. 12, ’05: The North Korean Revolution, Coming Soon to a Border Post Near You. Donga Ilbo, Feb. 7 ’06: North Korean Border Posts Attacked Did I just feel the earth twitch? Unidentified armed men carried out a series of attacks on North Korean border guards along the country’s border with China right before the lunar New Year, according...

First, the obvious: the prognosis is bleak for the six-party talks. This from Democratic staffer Frank Januzzi. Januzzi spins this as Congress and the President (read: Republicans) avoiding responsibility, but a much more likely explanation is that Congress hates the deal so much that it won’t appropriate the funds to buy tribute for Pyongyang, particularly without forthcoming admissions about uranium and counterfeiting. You can’t blame any political party for North Korea’s intransigence and dishonesty. The same argument can be reversed:...